No makeup date has been announced; Wilson to start series finale

CLEVELAND -- Heavy rain and severe thunderstorms forced the Angels' first postponement of the season at Progressive Field on Wednesday.

They'll wrap up the four-game set against the Indians on Thursday, then announce a makeup date for Wednesday's contest at a later date. The two teams have three common off-days the rest of the way (July 28, Aug. 14 and Sept. 8), basically making a doubleheader unnecessary.

"Any time you don't have a doubleheader, you're happy," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "There was no way we were going to be able to play tonight."

The two scheduled Wednesday starters, Angels lefty C.J. Wilson and Indians righty Justin Masterson, were pushed back to start Thursday afternoon (start time is 9:05 a.m. PT). Scioscia will also push Garrett Richards back to Friday's series opener at home against the Rangers, and Saturday and Sunday are currently TBD.

Jered Weaver will take the ball one of those days -- he was originally slated to start Saturday -- and the other game will either be started by lefty Hector Santiago or righty Matt Shoemaker. The Angels will then have an off-day on Monday.

The Angels and Indians share off-days on July 28 (Angels on their way to Baltimore; Indians returning home from Kansas City), Aug. 14 (Angels on their way to Texas; Indians in the middle of a homestand) and Sept. 8 (Angels on their way to Texas; Indians in the middle of a homestand).

Umpires determine whether or not there's a doubleheader. The fact that the Angels have to fly all the way back to the West Coast after Thursday's game, and that there's about a 30 percent chance of rain around game time, probably influenced that decision.

"I'm hearing there's chance of rain tomorrow," Scioscia said, "but we'll take it one step at a time."